BC Health Minister won’t ban pay-for-plasma blood donation

BC’s Health Minister is rebuffing a call for the province to ban the use of paying people for donating blood.

“We have no plan to legislate against the use of paid donors for plasma products in B.C.”

Terry Lake says some people seem to think the practice is immoral but they don’t understand that the practice is already in place and widely used.

“It is sort of a moralistic viewpoint that people are taking that somehow it is immoral to pay for donations. The reality is the vast majority of plasma products we get today come from paid donors in another country. So if that is the case today then why not consider Canadian donors as long as we can assure the public that it is safe.”

Lake says in light of that if a business wants to set up shop here to encourage local blood donations then so be it.

“If a company wants to come to British Columbia and employ British Columbians and use British Columbia residents to provide the plasma product we don’t see anything wrong with that as long as the quality is in place and we have been assured by Health Canada and Canadian Blood Services that is not a question.”

A group calledBloodWatch.orgwants the province to block the practice saying it does not increase access to safe blood.